UofL helping other Kentucky schools create startups, products

The University of Louisville will be showing Kentucky’s other colleges and universities how to translate intellectual property and innovations into market-ready products and startups. UofL is partnering with the University of Kentucky in the new Commonwealth Commercialization Center (C3) which has been announced by Governor Matt Bevin.

C3 is being partially funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Cabinet for Economic Development’s KY Innovation office, which will lead the new effort.

The idea behind the center is to have one place for Kentucky schools, their faculty and students to find ideas and support for commercializing their inventions with much of the expertise coming from UofL and UK. There is also hope that companies looking to invest in Kentucky will reach out to C3 to find research or innovation help.

“C3 enables all of our colleges and universities to share resources to support commercialization, to mobilize capital and to transform that research into fuel for economic growth” Bevin said.

The Office of Technology Transfer will be the point department for UofL on the project.

“The University of Louisville has long been a driver of innovation and the translation of technologies into the marketplace,” said UofL president Neeli Bendapudi. “We are excited to partner with the cabinet and UK to disseminate our vast knowledge and successes in commercialization for the advancement of the commonwealth.”

Following a 28-year career as a radio and television reporter, Mark Hebert joined the University of Louisville as the Director of Media Relations in 2009, serving as the main spokesperson. In 2015, Mark was named Director of Programming and Production. He’s now producing and hosting a radio show about “all things UofL”, overseeing the university’s video and TV productions and promoting UofL’s research operation. Mark is best known for his 22 years as the political and investigative reporter for WHAS-TV in Louisville where he won numerous awards for breaking stories, exposing corruption and objectively covering Kentucky politics. In 2014, Mark was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.